World Bank and Microsoft Announce Development of New Disability Disability Data Hub

June 15, 2022

Across the world, persons with disabilities remain invisible in the global development agenda. One key reason is because of variances in the availability and use of disability-disaggregated data across organizations and borders.

While it is estimated that one billion people, or 15 percent of the world’s population, have a disability – more data is needed to understand the true scale of the living conditions and development outcomes for persons with disabilities, and to get clarity on the degree to which persons with disabilities continue to be underserved.

This reality is a part of what the World Bank calls the disability divide – the gap in societal inclusion for persons with disabilities in all stages of development programs, including education, employment and digital inclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this risk and exposed some of the existing inequalities faced on a regular basis.

Up-to-date and inclusive statistics about persons with disabilities remain hard to find and often are fragmented. This inhibits global efforts to apply a disability-disaggregated lens.

The new disability data hub aims to provide a clearer picture of disability prevalence, representation and inclusion globally. This will help make it more possible than ever for governments, development practitioners, organizations of persons with disabilities, employers and civil society to understand the varying intersectional barriers for individuals with disabilities based on factors such as age, gender or socioeconomic background.

The new hub will also act as a key resource to:

• Move people to awareness and thoughtful, collective action.
• Increase collaboration and progress on breaking down stigmas and outdated assumptions surrounding disability.
• Inform policy and legislative conversations in the coming years.
• Inspire innovation across industries such as technology, healthcare and education.

Now is a critical time to ensure there exists a clear and more complete picture of persons with disabilities’ lives and the barriers they face. This will be essential to allocate resources to meet their basic needs and to scale programs to empower them.

Source: Microsoft Blog